Theft Case Study Land Rover Discovery

This theft is fairly unique in that it happened in the middle of the day in a residential area in a busy part of Birmingham. Whilst not all thefts happen at night, thefts during the middle of the day are not something that happens all the time. For this unlucky customer his Land Rover Discovery was stolen just after midday on a Sunday afternoon. 

In common with a lot of thefts currently this theft was completed via a keyless relay. Keyless thefts occur when a thief uses a relay switch to pick up the signal from a customer’s keys inside their house. The relay clones the signal to a new key or device which tricks the vehicle into starting and being able to be driven. Shockingly, this can be completed in around 2 minutes which is possibly why the thieves were able to get away with doing it during the day so easily.

When the customer had found the vehicle to be missing he called our dedicated Stolen Vehicle Recovery Team at our Control Centre and confirmed the vehicle had been taken. As procedure he was advised to gain a crime reference number and we contact our Repatriations Team.

In the event of a theft of an asset the following process will occur: 

1. Customer will report their vehicle stolen on our dedicated theft line/Global Telemetrics will ring the customer to make them aware of one of the alerts that our system generates (Vehicle moving without ignition, Battery disconnected, Driver Detection not present)
2. If not already obtained, customer will be advised to ring the police and obtain a crime reference number
3. Global Telemetrics work with our agents who work alongside the police to secure your asset. Upon a receipt of crime reference number, agents will attend the location of your vehicle
4. As a safety precaution, upon notifying Global Telemetrics of a theft all access to our apps is temporarily disabled. We will keep the owner informed of any updates so they can rest assured everything is in hand. Global Telemetrics will not provide customers with an exact location of the asset to avoid customers endangering themselves
5. When the vehicle is secured, Global Telemetrics will call the customer to confirm that the vehicle is safe
6. The police will arrange with the customer collection of the vehicle either from its location or after recovery and forensic examination
   

With the Crime Reference number confirmed, the Repatriations team alongside the police sprung into action and headed towards the location confirmed by the tracking device installed. 

In under 20 minutes of the vehicle being reported to us as stolen, our Repatriations Team had secured the vehicle and waited until the arrival of the police for the vehicle to be recovered for further investigations.

This theft highlights that although vehicle crime is rising and keyless thefts are increasingly easy to perform, a tracking device can enable a vehicle to be found and recovered before it can be sold on or broken down for parts.

For further information regarding any of our tracking systems, take a look at https://smartrack.uk.net or call 0800 279 6401.